North Kore­ans quizzed

SEOUL: South Korea is ques­tion­ing four North Kore­ans res­cued from waters off the east coast and will re­turn them to the North if they want to go back, the South’s Uni­fi­ca­tion Min­istry said yes­ter­day.

Kore­ans from the reclu­sive and im­pov­er­ished North have oc­ca­sion­ally de­fected to the rich, demo­cratic South by fish­ing boat, cross­ing the dis­puted mar­itime bor­der be­tween the two sides, but most de­fec­tions are via China.

The North Kore­ans were found on two ves­sels on Fri­day and Satur­day by the South Korean navy.

“They are un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion and will be asked if they want to go back,” spokesman Lee Duk-haeng said. Reuters